Media watchdog says porn websites will be forced to bring in 'age-gating' to prevent children seeing content

European Commission is investigating pornography sites Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos.

The biggest pornography websites operating in Europe will have to bring in “appropriate age-gating” to prevent children from viewing their content, Ireland’s digital services commissioner has said.

In an interview with the Irish Examiner, John Evans said an investigation opened at European level into four websites, including Pornhub, would “eventually” lead to the measure taking effect as the law is “pretty clear that needs to be the case”.

“The guidelines elaborate what needs to be done to come into compliance, so we will see the outcome of those investigations in due course,” he said. 

“I think that's a better outcome, rather than having individual member states trying to make this happen on their own. There's a lot of advantages from tackling these companies as a [European] region.” 

While the sites subject to the European Commission investigation — Pornhub, Stripchat, XNXX, and XVideos — are not based in Ireland, Mr Evans and Coimisiún na Meán are tasked with holding to account big firms with their European headquarters in Ireland.

During the summer, Elon Musk-owned X social media changed its policy on pornography and gratuitous violence and now requires age verification to view such content.

Another social media company, Tumblr, decided to change its terms and conditions so it does not allow pornography anymore.

"Investigations and enforcement findings and fines are not the only way to get change,” Mr Evans said. 

“Those changes on X around age-gating their service happened without any enforcement.

“They’ve chosen to come into compliance. Of course, we need to assess the effectiveness of that, and that will determine whether or not they’re compliant, but they’ve definitely taken steps.” 

Despite this, Coimisiún na Meán recently launched its first ever investigations into firms for suspected breaches of European legislation, focusing on X, LinkedIn and TikTok. 

While the first ever fine issued by the European Commission under the Digital Services Act against X amounted to €120m, it came after a two-year investigation.

Mr Evans was unable to give a specific timeline for when Coimisiún na Meán would complete its investigations into the big tech giants.

“All of this takes time because the consequences at the end of it are pretty serious. You’ll see from the X case [announced by the European Commission] with a €120m fine. There’s a lot of stake.” 

He stressed the steps taken must be airtight and by the book to ensure the sanction could be followed through and defended, if required, in the courts.

“It’s hard to give a timeline,” he said. 

“It takes as long as it takes to get it right. Doing things for the first time is harder, but I would expect there will be significant periods of time required to get these things right.” 

The fine imposed by the European Commission on X prompted a furious reaction from its owner Elon Musk, who called for the abolition of the European Union.

He was backed by the Trump administration, including by vice-president JD Vance and secretary of state Marco Rubio. Mr Rubio called it an attack “on all American tech platforms and the American people” and that “the days of censoring Americans online are over”.

Although the fine was unrelated to “censorship” and instead focused on issues such as X’s “deceptive” blue checkmark and transparency around its advertising, Mr Evans said there would be “pushback” from big firms to being regulated.

"Making some of the changes to come into compliance are expensive,” he said. “They don’t like doing that, it becomes a cost centre for them.

“In a sense, the geopolitical issues are kind of above my head and all we can do is work the legislative system as it is and do the job as best we can.

“Sometimes it will become uncomfortable for people but you still got to do it.”